[mstade]

It's weird to see the party claiming to be for free markets essentially go all-in on central planning. Black is white and up is down, I s'pose.

[jimbokun]

That party has been gone for awhile. Trump has never shown any affinity for free markets.

[HideousKojima]

How are tariffs (and now basically significant tariffs on only China now) in any way similar to a centrally planned economy? Tariffs have existed in every country capable of enforcing them for all of human history, and they existed in the US prior to Trump, and will continue to exist after Trump. Even countries we have supposed "free trade" agreements with still get tariffed (and impose tariffs on our goods).

[ForHackernews]

They're taxing certain things and then carving out exemptions for other things. Personal favors and political ideology driving the economy instead of market forces.

[cyberax]

Remember when Trump threatened Amazon for even thinking about showing the tariffs on the payment screen?

Very free market.

[mstade]

Others have responded more eloquently than I to this, so I won't. All I will say is I never equated tariffs with central planning, but I can see how from context you drew that conclusion. Tariffs aren't the only thing the republicans are doing under Trump, and taken as a whole the current administration smells – to me at least – a lot more politburo than the free trade champions of yesteryear. (Well, more like decade at this point.)

[jjulius]

>Tariffs have existed in every country capable of enforcing them for all of human history, and they existed in the US prior to Trump, and will continue to exist after Trump. Even countries we have supposed "free trade" agreements with still get tariffed (and impose tariffs on our goods).

To what degree relative to what we're seeing now, though?

[hyperpape]

"How dare you judge me for drinking a case of beer. I know for a fact you had two beers this evening!"